Metro Weeklyby Yusef Najafi
Lawson emphasized at the meeting that D.C. has the highest rate of HIV in the United States, with an estimated 1 in 50 residents having AIDS and 1 in 20 testing HIV positive.
Ruby Corado, a transgender activist who is HIV positive, echoed Lawson's sentiments when speaking of her own personal experience.
''In the last 15 years, I have seen that people of this city do not have a voice,'' she said. ''The HIV-positive people of Washington, D.C., do not have a [say on] how the money is spent. They have no power, and when you have a crisis and you're trying to come out of the mud, and you have nothing, not even a voice that says 'help,' you got nothing.''
